Palmer is usually (one of) the first to criticise other drivers. However, he’s displayed some pretty average driving of his own in the past, and while he might be better than most at keeping it clean, he’s nowhere near as good as he seems to think he is.

I think ‘in the past’ are the operative words here. He’s matured as a driver a massive amount over the last while. Sure, he criticises drivers but why shouldn’t he speak his mind? It’s the same in F1, fans complain if you do and if you don’t.

@prisoner-monkeys I like your definiton of Palmer: “he’s nowhere near as good as he seems to think he is.”
I also agree with you on the other point, Palmer has outspokenly criticised Cecotto at Monaco and Canamasas at Silverstone on Twitter, and was fined 12000€ for calling the Spaniard a ******* idiot (although I’m not sure when/where) and, to believe him, he was almost banned for it.
As I wrote in my latest blog:

Palmer’s fine was probably not out of place as the rules are written, but when the stewards close both eyes in front of dishonourable driving and then penalise the understandable reaction of the victim, which also happened off track rather than on track (Cecotto’s Malaysia foolery was a reaction to Bird blocking him), something must be done to change things.

Returning to the topic, GP2 has confirmed on Facebook (that’s where I saw it) that the glitches have been fixed and they mentioned no other issue and added that we should finally hear team radios. I’m sure they could be useful or hilarious in certain situations! Imagine what the drivers were saying after Cecotto’s Monaco crash…

@kimihakkinen – When I say “past”, I mean as recently as the contact with Canamasas. Although the on-board camera makes it look like Canamasas is at fault, trackside replays show Palmer locking up under braking into Brooklands. Canamasas turns in, expecting Palmer to do the same, but Palmer has missed the apex of the corner by a country mile and clearly has a fight on his hands to make the turn. Contact is inevitable. And while Canamasas should have yielded to a driver on the lead lap, Palmer makes the kind of amateurish mistake you would expect from, well, Canamasas.

To me, there is a big difference between swearing in the heat of the moment (which for me is completely understandable) or continuing swearing in (social) media after the race. For the latter, a fine is justified in my view.

Having said that, I do think that the race stewards should punish guys like Cecotto (for Malaysia and Barcelona) much harder than the guys complaining about it.